Once a visitor came to a sadhu’s ashram. He saw the sadhu was living in a very simple house. He looked around and found there was nothing worthy in his house – no bed, no wardrobe, no chair, no table, no refrigerator. The visitor was surprised.  He immediately inquired, “Sir, where are your belongings?” The sadhu asked, “Where are yours?”  The visitor reasoned, “I am just a visitor here and will be here for a short period of time.” The sadhu said, “So, am I.” 

While travelling we try to carry minimum luggage so that we travel without much hassle. We carry only essential items. In this world too we are a traveler, we cannot live here permanently although we may wish. But almost all of us believe that we will live here forever and so we keep on hoarding things.  Krishna tells us that to attain peace in this world we should give up all desires for sense gratification and give up all sense of proprietorship. B.G. 2.71.

But we think, “The more we have the more happy we will become.” And so we work hard, to earn more so that we accumulate more. The more desire we have more miserable we become, we also cannot fulfill all our desires. And since we are a cosmic traveler we are asked to vacate the place as soon as our visa expires. All our plea to extend our visa in front of the agents of death fall on deaf ears. Death can come at any moment. It can come while I am writing this piece or it can come while you are reading this article.  Most of the time it comes without intimation. Using our worldly positions we cannot defy the order of the agents of death, through our wealth we cannot bribe them. 

When we have to leave we have to leave and we may be asked to leave at any moment. Stephen Hawking, the renowned scientist, had solutions to many of the mysteries of the world but he too had to wind up all his research work and leave with the agents of death when they came calling. Sridevi, a very popular movie actress, was getting ready for a dinner date with her husband in Dubai. She went to take bath and her husband was eagerly waiting for her to get ready. Little did she or her husband know that there was also an uninvited guest who was waiting to take her with him.  

Govinda Dasa Kaviraja, a poet and a devotee of the Lord reminds us that how everything in this world is temporary – e dhana, yaubana, putra, parijana/ ithe ki äche paratiti re/ kamala-dala-jala, jivana talamala/ bhajahu hari-pada niti re.  “What assurance of real happiness is there in all of one’s wealth, youthfulness, sons, and family members? This life is tottering like a drop of water on a lotus petal; therefore you should always serve and worship the divine feet of Lord Hari.”

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(Purushottam Nitai Das is a member of congregation at Iskcon Kolkata. He blogs at http://krishnamagic.blogspot.in/)